This invention is in the field of apparatus for holding implements which are not in use, specifically, any such apparatus which facilitates quick and simple placement of the implements for holding by the apparatus and quick and simple retreival of the implements for use. More specifically, the invention pertains to holding cutting implements such as knives and to knife sharpening implements, particularly implements made of ferromagnetic materials and holders using magnets to provide or supplement the holding forces. Further, the invention is in the field of implement holders which are fastened to a surface for use and which hold knives and the like vertically, horizontally or flat in a space such as a drawer with their cutting edges positioned toward the surface because such positioning reduces the chances for injuries during placement or removal of the knives and by inadvertant contact with held knives.
Holders of this type need not require any more storage or access space than is needed for the implements themselves because the implements are placed for holding or removed by moving the implements directly toward the mounting surface and into the holding position or away from it and out of the holding position respectively. This is not true for holders such as slotted blocks and the like which require endwise motion of the implements for placement in and removal from the block and extra access space is needed for such motion for placement and removal. The field includes apparatus which can accept implements of variable proportions in terms of total length and the ratio of handle length to total length.
There is a variety of prior art apparatus incorporating the noted features of apparatus in the subject field. U.S. Pat. No. 2,357,646 covers a knife holder in which the knives are placed vertically with their cutting edges toward a mounting surface. The ends of the handles of the knives rest in recesses in a ledge and the blades are retained in corresponding slots in a second ledge by spring loaded balls. The utility of this apparatus is limited because the knife ends and recesses must match to a certain extent and the distance between the ledges allows accomodation only of knives having proportions in limited ranges of handle and knife lengths. Also, while the spring loaded balls may satisfactorily restrain blades having parallel sides, they would tend to expel blades which taper from the sharp edge to a broader back edge or blades which have multiple bevels or are tapered.
FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 of U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,239 illustrate apparatus for holding knives in slots with the sharp edges facing into the slots. Magnet assemblies are positioned in pockets, one on each side of each slot. The magnet assemblies for each slot are positioned opposite each other and are of similar polarity, thereby repelling each other and thereby being held bottomed in their respective pockets when there is no knife in the slot. When a knife blade of magnetic material is inserted into a slot, the magnets cease to repel each other and are attracted to the blade, serving to hold it in place by the frictional force between the blade and the magnets. In this apparatus two magnets are required for each slot. Also, while housing or base 112 is illustrated as a single piece, installation of the magnets would in fact require that it be made with a multiplicity of parts.
Details of assembly in some manner could be established by persons of ordinary skill in the art. However, it is evident, since the patented apparatus is not known to have achieved commercial success, that inventive capabilities would be required to enable manufacture of the apparatus at a competitive cost. Also, experience indicates that the flat circular surfaces of the magnets would not adapt to all the various blade shapes sufficiently to assure secure holding of many of the various kinds of commercially available knives.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,394 also shows apparatus in the particular field of the subject invention. The primary force holding the knife or the like in the slot is the friction force developed between one wall of the slot, the knife blade and a roller which rolls on the other side of the slot, this other side being inclined downwardly and toward the first side so that gravity and friction forces generated by applying downward forces on the knife cause the roller to wedge the knife in place. Stop means are provided to prevent the roller itself from wedging into place with no knife in the slot. This patent further suggests the expensive option that the body of the holder could be made of ferromagnetic material and magnetized to supplement the holding action on ferromagnetic implements. A further suggestion is to encapsulate a magnet alongside the slot in a holder made of non-ferromagnetic material to augment the holding action. Placement of a knife in this holder required some lengthwise motion of the knife. Therefore this holder required more space than is needed when the knives can be inserted using only motion normal to the surface on which the holder is mounted.
This patented holder is intended to be made of any of a variety of materials depending on ". . . the production facilities available, the economics to be effected, and/or the aesthetic results to be obtained." Even so, it is not known to have achieved commercial success and therefore it can be concluded that the concept has not enabled marketing a holder offering a suitably attractive combination of quality, utility, aesthetic appearance and cost.
International application WO No. 79/00376 published under the Patent Cooperation Treaty also shows apparatus in the particular field of the subject invention. In this apparatus knives or the like are held in slots by mated sets of wheels with elastomeric rims, with the sharp edges of the knives facing into the slots. In such apparatus there is a tendency for knife blades which are wedge shaped in cross-section to be expelled from between the rollers. Further, in order to have sufficient contact areas between the knives and rollers, using relatively firm elastomer for stability and durability, the roller diameter must be relatively large. Therefore, with two rollers and some clearance space between knives, the space between knives is fairly large and the number of knives held in a given length of holder is accordingly fairly low.
Other prior art in the particular field has been shown in various publications. For example, advertisements show a wall mounted holder for the blades and handle of the General Electric Spacemaker.TM. Electric Knife, EK30. This holder is designed to specifically hold the blades and handle of the electric knife and relies on gravity to hold the elements in place in recesses. One such advertisement was published on page 48 of Volume 9, Number 27 of Family Circle magazine. In this same issue, on page 28, there is an illustration and description of a holder for knives and a sharpening tool in a drawer. The holder fits crosswise in the bottom of the drawer and has a series of wedges cut into it parallel to the open-shut direction of the drawer. Each wedge shaped cut accepts one knife and one wedge cut is designed to hold a sharpening tool. Experience has shown that unless the holder is fixed in place in the drawer and endwise motion of the knives or sharpener is limited, the implements are easily dislodged by the open/shut motion of the drawer. Further, this holder is restricted to use in a drawer or on a counter, in each case using up quite a large area of otherwise useful space. The holder is noted in this publication along with other aesthetically pleasing subjects.
It should be noted that there is a variety of prior art in a more general field in which knives are held magnetically with one of the broad surfaces of each blade against immovable magnetic means. Holders of this type have the basic disadvantages of (1) requiring more space than those which hold the broad surfaces of the knives parallel to each other and normal to the mounting surface of the holder and (2) the blades can be accidentally knocked, jarred, vibrated or otherwise moved directly away from the magnetic apparatus, thus making it relatively easy to dislodge the knives accidentally, with attendant hazards. This is caused primarily by the fact that once the knife is out of contact with either pole piece of a magnetic assembly, the force tending to hold the knife in place diminishes rapidly so that even a small and momentary disturbance of the knife can cause it to come free of the holder. A further disadvantage of the immovable magnet type holder is that it is not useful in instances in which space available could be more efficiently used if the holder is vertical on a vertical wall and the held implements oriented horizontally.
The subject invention, to be useful in either a vertical or horizontal orientation and require minimum space, incorporates magnets in a special way described later in this application. The magnets are a type quite well represented in the prior art and comprise a magnetized element, sandwiched between two faceplates which function as pole pieces. The faceplates have edges and the edges contact whatever is to be magnetically held. The faceplates are free to slide on the magentized element to conform to and/or align with whatever is magnetically held to enhance the holding capacity. In some instances, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,877,040, the faceplates are attached to each other and move in unison laterally and rotationally about a support pin. The example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,163,453 allows only for rotary motion of the magnetic assembly around the support pin.
The magnetic assembly shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,302 has virtually 4 degrees of freedom within the limits of the space provided by the bracket which contains it. However, the two faceplates are fastened to the magnetic core and do not move relative to each other.
In the examples shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,174,786 and 3,438,655 the faceplates move in parallel planes and the motions are constrained to be essentially equal and opposite by "whiffletree" type mechanism. The magnetic assembly fits loosely in the main housing in a way which permits rotational displacement of the assembly relative to the housing as shown in FIG. 6. As shown in these patents these arrangements allow the magnetic assembly to adjust with two degrees of freedom to angular misalignment between the magnetic assembly and whatever apparatus it is designed to magnetically hold to.
It can be seen from the above discussion that there have been attempts to satisfy the long standing need for safe, economical, compact and aesthetically attractive storage apparatus for knives and the like. It is also evident that magnets and magnetic assemblies have been considered useful in such apparatus and that the magnetic assemblies are (1) similar to or adapted from magnetic latches and the like and (2) have the capability for their working faces to adjust to some degree for misalignments and/or irregularities of the surfaces of the objects which are to be held magnetically.
It is further evident, from market survey and literature research, that none of the prior attempts to meet the need has been commercially successful Therefore, to summarize, it is the object of the subject invention to meet the need for a holder for implements such as knives and the like which can be manufactured for costs which are low relative to (1) the selected capacity, (2) the safety in terms of the security of retention of the implements, (3) the quality in terms of the basic material used and the aesthetic appearance, (4) optimal adaptability to various sizes and shapes of knives and (5) the space required to place, hold and retreive the implements. It is a further ojbect that the holding apparatus not mar in any way finely finished surfaces of held objects.